Yarmouth rapist jailed

A man violently raped a woman as she walked home alone after a night out in Yarmouth.James Court, 22, started chatting to the victim as she walked along Albion Road and then picked her up and carried her first into a car park and then an alleyway before raping her, Norwich Crown Court heard.

A man violently raped a woman as she walked home alone after a night out in Yarmouth.

James Court, 22, started chatting to the victim as she walked along Albion Road and then picked her up and carried her first into a car park and then an alleyway before raping her, Norwich Crown Court heard.

The frightened victim tried to phone her friend for help on her mobile and thought her call had not got through but her friend could hear the victim screaming in the background and telling him to get off her.

After Court raped the woman, he left the scene and the victim then phoned her friend again to tell her what had happened and asked her to come and fetch her.

Noel Casey, prosecuting, said the victim was hysterical and had scratches and bruises on her, when her friend found her.

Court was later arrested for the rape but made no comment to police.

In an impact statement the victim said she had moved away from Great Yarmouth as the result of what happened and had also given up a college course she was doing. She said she also had lost confidence about going out at night.

Court of Priory Plain, Great Yarmouth, admitted rape on July 4 this year.

Jailing him for four and a half years and placing him on the sex offenders' register for life, Judge Peter Jacobs yesterday told him: “The effect has been absolutely devastating for the victim.” He said the vulnerable victim had changed her whole life as a result of what had happened.

“She does not want to go out at night and has left Great Yarmouth.”

Katharine Moore, mitigating, said: “By his plea he has spared the complainant any concern about coming to court.”

She said he was a young man and had never committed any offence of such gravity before.